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Sustainability covers a wide variety of issues, including:

• economic, e.g. cost of ownership
• environmental, e.g. sourcing of energy, and
• social, e.g. fitting the user’s lifestyle.

The key to sustainability is two-fold, focussing on reducing power requirements through improved efficiency, and incorporating more renewable sources of energy into buildings.

In general, mainland Europe is far in advance of the UK in this respect. For example, Western Harbour in Malmö, Sweden, is an urban development of 1000 dwellings and offices in which 98% of energy requirements are met from locally produced renewable energy from wind, sun and water.

In the UK, legislation and policy initiatives such as EcoHomes are increasingly leading the construction industry towards sustainability, both in the specification of materials and in design, such as use of increased insulation and incorporation of renewable energy sources. Planning Policy Statement 22, which is increasingly adopted by planning authorities in the UK, gives guidance for incorporating renewable energy sources in new developments. (For more information on ‘Planning Policy Statement 22’, please click into either the ‘Housebuilders & Developers’ or ‘Social Housing’ sections as relevant and drill down through ‘What you need to know’ to ‘Policy Initiatives’ ).

Improving building fabric (and most new build is currently specified to levels over and above current legislation) works well with electric heating, 100% efficient at point of use and ideal for well-insulated properties. When combined with microgeneration of renewable energy sources, electricity starts to emerge as the fuel of choice.

"Making the shift to a more sustainable lifestyle is one of the most important challenges for the 21st century."
Tony Blair